No Stone Unturned
by anon33125
Summary: Hatake Jaada has been raised away from the village whose forehead protector she wears. Now that she's deemed jounin level and ready to be a huge asset in the war looming overhead, she is brought 'home' to Konoha. She finally has the chance to get to know her distant father and the wonders that being a part of the village family can hold... light KakaIru
1. Chapter 1

I sat on the steps of our most recent abandoned cabin twirling a kunai on my middle finger. My guardian, Ro, was inside after he'd won our sparring match earlier in the day. That meant it was my turn to make dinner. I huffed out a small sigh, enough to flutter my bangs on my forehead, and cupped my head in the hand not twirling a kunai. Life was getting boring again. I hated when things got boring, especially as boring as having to be in charge of dinner. I haven't quite mastered the art of being still or calming my mind. It was evenings like this which brought out my true restlessness.

My ears picked up a rustle in the bush and my next twirl of the kunai had it leaving my fingers. The leaves rustled again, this time heavier as something fell. Internally, I groaned, that fall wasn't as heavy as I'd hoped. Looked like it would be rabbit stew for us tonight.

"Ro!" I called, turning the stove off while stirring my stew one more time. "Dinner's ready!"

The floorboards creaked under Ro's weight as he trudged into the kitchen. Ro used to be a top ANBU shinobi of Konoha, one of the legendary members. It was one of the reasons he had been chosen as my guardian. Now, he kind of resembles an overgrown-father type. He used to be strappingly tall, now his back is a bit hunched up. His muscles used to be lean and wiry, now they're all just thick and while I have no doubts at all that he's retained his strength, those muscles are hidden beneath an extra layer of skin. His hair, which used to be lush black, had turned to thinning salt and pepper. I knew there were still women who swooned over him, but to me, I could see how old he'd gotten.

"Smells good," he said, sniffing the air. His voice was a pleasant, soothing rumble. I had always loved the sound of it.

"Thanks," I replied, spooning some stew into his bowl.

We sat down at the small table together, sinking into a comfortable eating silence as we usually did. It was a while before I spoke up.

"How much longer are we staying here?" I asked, careful not to sound too whiny or he'd respond harshly.

"Another day or two," he sighed, leaning back on his elbows.

"And where are we off to next?" I continued, curious if we had a plan or were just back to wandering. This was the time of year we would generally meet up with my father.

"Not sure yet, Jaada," he replied. "Very good stew." He patted his stomach and rose from the table. I held back a growl, he was keeping something from me.

I looked out the window as I washed our dishes from dinner. As it got darker outside, my reflection became more prominent than the abundant trees. I frowned a bit at what I saw, I looked far too much like my father for my liking. I had his coal black eyes, his strange silver-white hair, his pale sun-sensitive skin, and Ro had told me many times I could also have his aloof, sarcastic attitude. My hair, however, unlike his, was tame and long. I had short bangs that just covered my Konoha forehead protector, I usually let a few strands of hair hang loose from my ponytail, which fell in a nice wavy waterfall down to the middle of my back. I actually really like the texture of my hair, it was the color I had a problem with. Ro said it made me my father's daughter through and through.

I've always known my father, he shows up at least once every year for a span of at least two weeks. Some years, especially when I was younger, he came more often and stayed longer. In the years since he's left ANBU and officially taken on a genin team, he has only been able to come for that one fortnight. His name is Hatake Kakashi and he is known as one of the top elite ninja throughout the shinobi world (and even in parts of the civilian world).

Through my life and moving from place to place with Ro, I've assembled a picture of my life story, so here it is. Kakashi was kidnapped during a PTSD episode he had just as the shinobi villages managed to piece together an uneasy treaty at the end of the Third Shinobi War. Many hidden villages were trying to find any way possible to be able to undermine the other villages in case their treaty was broken, which, in those days, was considered to be a guarantee. So, Mist decided they would take pre-emptive actions and impregnate their top kunoichi with the most elite male shinobi they could capture. Kakashi was just emerging in the world as an undefeatable genius, so they decided he would do. Things happened, the Mist kunoichi became pregnant and Kakashi only had the slightest notion of what had happened when he escaped.

I was born when he was about 14 and I was kidnapped from my mother just days later by disguised Konoha ANBU. My mother was killed by Mist ninja who thought she had planned my kidnapping, even though she wasn't involved at all (Mist ninja are rather paranoid). Ro had recently lost his wife and newborn daughter in the war, so he volunteered to take me as his charge since Kakashi was far from mentally or emotionally able to handle caring for a child. Konoha received several threats from Mist about taking me back, but no one was ready for another destructive battle just yet, so Konoha claimed ignorance on the matter and sent Ro to become a rogue ninja with me in tow. We've been on the road ever since.

Kakashi takes solo missions when he comes to visit me and we train hard almost the entire length of his stay. He officiated me as a genin when I was 8 and I took the chuunin exam in Suna a couple years later, under a pseudonym. Now I'm 16 and Ro has been pushing Kakashi for me to take the jounin exam for over a year now.

So, that's basically it, my life in a nutshell. My favorite weapon is my katana, my chakra nature is almost even between lightening and water (not enough for a legitimate kekki genkai, but I use both pretty often and can use them together) with a little bit of earth affinity hidden in there. I have two rather large ninken hounds as summons, Auri and Tekki; they're both sweethearts and I love them, they've saved my butt many a time as well. Thinking of them, I smiled, finished putting away our dishes, and went to living room to sleep on the couch opposite Ro's already resounding snores.

"Up and at 'em, kiddo," Ro greeted, pulling on my feet the next morning. I grumbled and kicked at his hands. I'd been awake since he'd been thundering around, but I really hated getting out of my warm, comfy futon. "Morning training, I'll meet you at the pond in 15 minutes."

I sighed, got up, stretched, got dressed, managed to stuff some rice in my mouth, and was out on the pond 15 minutes later. If I was late, Ro would go that much harder on me in training. I walked out to the center of the pond where he was waiting.

"Are we sparring today?" I asked him.

"Nah, there's a group of ninja within a 50 mile radius of us. I want you to find them and figure out where they're from, where they're going, and what their mission is. If they see you or a fight breaks out, you lose. If you can manage all of this and be back here by dinner, you win." He explained, he always liked making my training into a self-competition.

I just grinned. Stealth-tracking and intel-gathering were two of my favorite things. They both took concentration and good intuition, which eased my restless mind.

"What do I win?" I asked, as was part of our routine.

"Bragging rights and a free dinner," he responded fairly. "Begin!"

I bounded off into the trees, quickly finding the highest one and scampering to the top. I took in a deep breath through my nose. A 50 mile radius was about 25 miles beyond my scent range, but if I couldn't smell anyone here, that was a 25 mile radius I could knock out of the way. I turned my head and sniffed again as the wind changed direction. Sweat, coming from northwest. I could only smell it because of the wind, so they were further than 25 miles from my current position. I scampered down the tree and took off.

I love running, my armor is weighted to keep me training in speed, but I would happily run as my sole mode of transportation. I kept the hint of sweat in my nose as I ran, when it grew faint, I would jump to the top of whatever tree I happened to be on and wait for the wind to blow it again. As I closed in on my intended targets, a familiar chakra signature tickled at my senses. I frowned slightly, if it was him, he was probably on another mission. Ro would have told me he was coming and he wouldn't have brought, I sniffed the air again, three other people with him.

Then something occurred to me, it was _Kakashi_, if I could figure out his mission without him ever knowing I was here, I could tease him about this _forever_. I smiled to myself, this training just got a lot more interesting.

I pressed my hand into a nearby puddle on the forest floor and quickly melted myself into it. Hurray for recent rain, this puddle was still connected to the raindrops on the leaves and the trees. I let my consciousness slip between puddles and raindrops, getting ever closer to them. At a large enough puddle, where I could smell 4 distinct people, I let my body transfer over as well. It's a rather slow method of travel, but puddle hopping is excellent for stealth. As long as the body of water I melt myself into is large enough, I can transfer my mind's eye to smaller puddles and raindrops which are still connected to the water system, while keeping my physical body safe in the larger part of the system. It takes a lot of concentration and chakra for me to do this, but that's half the fun of being a ninja anyway.

Finally, I got them. Kakashi was most definitely the captain of the team, unsurprising, and there were three younger ninja, probably a year or two older than me. One had insane blond hair, he was wearing an orange and black jumpsuit; that one had to be Naruto. Another was a kunoichi with short pink hair and a short red battle dress, Sakura. The final member of the team was one I'd never seen before, nor had my father described him. This one could not be Sasuke. He had dark hair, pale skin, a belly shirt, and a roughly cut sword. Very odd. He, like Kakashi, was emitting much less chakra and much less of a scent than the other two, so I deduced that he had a higher ranking, probably jounin level, or a strong background in stealth.

Kakashi held up a closed fist, indicating for the others to stop. They all landed gracefully on their branches and I could feel their chakra signatures flare slightly. Their senses all heightened to search out any unfamiliar chakra. Kakashi continued to hold his fist up for another minute before he opened it and gestured his team to continue forward with an open palm. From this, I gathered that they were searching for someone. There didn't seem to be an outside threat, but when their chakra flared, they were extending their awareness boundaries. If they were on a mission for information, they wouldn't have stopped unless they'd already found a presence.

I let my subconscious slip back into my body in the large puddle. As soon as they were far enough away, I solidified my body to its normal state and stood, wringing the water out of my hair. They were obviously using a nonverbal method of communication, so my follow by puddle-hopping wasn't going to get me any closer to knowing who they were trying to find. I resolved to trail behind them and observe their movements until I came up with a more concrete plan.

As they continued their stop, observe, and go type progression, I picked up on a few more indicators. Firstly, the person they were searching for was not a direct threat to them. Although their chakra signatures flared, there was no ferocity, no preparation for battle. Second, they were searching for a rogue ninja. If the person were civilian, they would not be taking such care with taming their chakra in the first place, they would have senses heightened at all times. It must be a rogue ninja because of where they are in the woods and how often they stop. No one comes to the deserted woodsy type places Ro and I call home except for civilians who live off the forests and rogue ninja who never want to set foot in the shinobi world again. The only reason for Kakashi's team to be stopping so often in these woods is that they know their target is nearby. As I realized these things, I also noted that they were Konoha ninja. This meant that all three of my training objectives were answered! Their mission is retrieval of a rogue ninja, this forest is their destination (until they find their target anyway), and they will bring him back to Konoha. I skipped delightedly and was just turning back to head to Ro when I heard a scream.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


	2. Chapter 2

"Kakashi-sensei! Behind you!"

Shit! I dismissed my previous thought and bolted to catch up with the team. Sure, I knew my father was more than capable of holding his own ground, but I wasn't about to be ignorant of my surroundings. I reached them just as Kakashi dispelled the clone of a Stone nin with a kunai to the gut. Almost as soon as that one was gone, another appeared ready to do its damage. Kakashi signaled to his team that this was his fight and they were to stand down. The pale boy I didn't recognize teamed up with Sakura to hold Naruto back.

The second clone was dispelled just as quickly, but the third seemed to be giving my father some trouble. I felt, more than saw or heard, the real Stone nin jump down from the trees, prepared to take Kakashi out with a single swoop of his katana. I flew out of my hiding place, formed my hand seals, and shot one of my special compressed lightening balls directly at him.

Then both men and the clone disappeared. A voice materialized far too close to my shoulder.

"You lose," murmured Ro's rumble. I let my fist sink into his stomach before I even registered what he'd said or who he was.

"What are you doing here?" I growled as the Stone nin henge dropped from Ro's appearance. He only laughed and a minute later Kakashi had reappeared on the tree branch, chortling under his mask as well. His three team members looked about as confused as I felt. But, then something clicked for me. "You two played me! Assholes!"

"Sorry, kiddo, it was far too tempting an opportunity," Ro jokingly apologized. Kakashi shrugged half-heartedly and turned his attention to his team.

"These are the two we will be escorting back to Konoha. Hatake Jaada and Ushuzi Talmyro," he motioned to each of us as he said our names. "Jaada, Ro, these are my students and teammates. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Sai."

"I'm going to Konoha?" That was the only part of his introductions I heard.

"Hatake!?" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison at the same time as I asked my question. Kakashi just sighed, as if this were the most troublesome thing in the universe, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Jaada is my daughter, it's a long story," he addressed his students first. "And yes, Jaada," he turned to me, "you are coming to Konoha with us. You will adjust to the village life and join my team in training for a couple months, then you will take your jounin exam to be officially part of Konoha's shinobi team." I let that sink in for about a minute as I turned to look at Ro.

"I'm really going to Konoha?" I asked of him. He smiled at me fondly and nodded. My face broke out into the biggest grin I'd ever given in my life and I jumped to fasten my arms around his neck in a delighted hug. "Thanks!"

"A long. Story." Naruto repeated, unamused, to his sensei.

"That sounds like an avoidance of a difficult topic," the pale boy, apparently named Sai, commented.

"I'll ask Tsunade-sama when we get back," Sakura sighed heavily, looking disappointed in how well she knew her sensei's secret keeping. I wasn't entirely shocked that they didn't know who I was, I knew Kakashi too. He doesn't talk unless he's forced into it.

I let go of Ro's neck and bounced back onto my tree branch.

"You ready to go?" Kakashi questioned at me and Ro, completely ignoring Naruto screaming questions, Sakura forcibly holding him down, and Sai watching in obvious amusement.

"Ah," I hesitated, I'd left this morning thinking I was only training. Granted, I didn't exactly have personal items, but I hadn't been packed either.

"Hai," Ro answered for me, tossing my bag and my long travelling cloak at me. "I packed as soon as you left, that's everything."

"Thanks," I muttered. "I think…" I added as an afterthought. I'm not quite sure how I feel about Ro going through my things now that I'm actually an adult. All the same, I slid into my black hooded cloak and threw my backpack onto my shoulders.

"Good," said Kakashi as Ro finished putting on his own cloak. He turned back to his team and shot them a cheerful eye-smile. "Let's go!"

We all jumped off and started the journey to Konoha. After a few miles of running across branches, I increased my speed to catch up with Kakashi. As I did, I noticed the rest of the team also inch within hearing distance of us. I snorted under my breath a bit, but otherwise really couldn't have cared.

"Ah, Kakashi?" I asked, coming up to his side.

"Hm?" He responded in his usual bored tone.

"Is Konoha really just going to accept Ro and I back? Ro has lived as a rogue Konoha traitor for almost 16 years."

For a while Kakashi said nothing, we just kept running in silence.

"Well," he finally started. "Ro will be returning as a civilian, he will not be allowed to resume his career as a shinobi."

"What?!" I tripped over the next branch and would have fallen if Kakashi didn't grab my arm. I turned around to glare at Ro. "You agreed to that?!"

He inclined his head lightly.

"Hai, Jaada, it is what's best for you," he replied.

"But… You can't just…. Not be a ninja," I muttered, my voice fading, my eyebrows furrowing.

"You're still welcome to live with me," Ro offered as though that would make me feel better about it.

"Thanks, but that's not the point," I shot slightly angrily back at him. I didn't even think that our living situation would change. After a moment that occurred to me. "Who else would I live with?"

"I assumed you'd want to spend some time getting to know your father," Ro suggested, quite matter of factly.

This time I wasn't the only one who tripped on the next tree branch. Both Kakashi and I ended up sticking to the side of the tree we just happened to fall from using chakra in our feet. I looked astonished at him as his eye held the same expression looking at me. He obviously hadn't considered my living with him either. The others jumped to the ground to stare up at us.

"Apparently, I was the only one with that line of thought," Ro revised his previous suggestion.

"My apartment is too small," Kakashi said, recovering from his shock and righting himself back onto the tree branch.

"Right," I muttered, also recovering my stance and rolling my eyes dramatically. "Good to know I was correct not to think that was an option," I added in an undertone.

Ro smacked Kakashi upside the head, which, of course, Kakashi responded to by glaring wordlessly harshly at him. Sakura, Naruto, and Sai seemed to get the subliminal message that this conversation was being held between me, Ro, and Kakashi, and were very nicely not getting involved. I'm sure they were trying their best to memorize everything being said so that they could gossip about it later. Not that I blame them, I'd try my best to garner any possible information about Kakashi from them later, once I was comfortable in Konoha.

"This is your _daughter_," Ro hissed sternly at Kakashi, who then sighed in an aggravated manner in return.

"I didn't mean it like _that_, just that she wouldn't be comfortable with me." Kakashi attempted to justify his brash rejection of the idea of my living with him.

"Yeah," I interjected. "I would most certainly not be comfortable living with _him_. Especially since he doesn't want me to."

"That's not what I—" Kakashi started.

"What else could you have meant?!" I interrupted.

"It'd be very close quarters…"

"And you smell bad?"

"No! You're just—"

"Not good enough for you?"

"ENOUGH!" Ro grabbed both of us by the junction between our neck and shoulder blades, fed up with our bickering. I was used to Ro doing this by now, so I just crossed my arms and pouted. Kakashi was a full grown man unaccustomed to being treated like a rebellious child, so his eye just opened wide in shock as his own hand was tightly grasping Ro's wrist in an attempt to free himself. If I weren't ticked off, his full expression would be quite comical. His team, on the other hand, were frozen in shock, which made me lose my pout and laugh out loud. Naruto looked like a fish out of water.

My laughter roused Ro from his angry face and he released his grip on us.

"Stop being so immature," he managed to get through gritted teeth. "I rescind my offer of you living with me, Jaada, you WILL be moving in with Kakashi once we reach Konoha."

That stopped my laughter and I could see Kakashi sulking under his mask as well. Neither of us argued though, instead our group just bounded back into the trees, back on our journey to Konoha. This was going to be interesting.

Nothing of note really happened to us on our travels to the village. When we rested, I stayed near Ro, Kakashi either acted as lookout or went off on his own, and his three teammates grouped together to talk in whispers. Sakura attempted to come over and talk to me once when Ro joined Kakashi on his lookout. She seems nice, but I really had no idea how to respond to her questions. She asked me things about flowers, cute boys, fictional books, and medical procedures. I don't know anything about flowers, except the ones that have healing powers. I've never really been in a place to think about boys or love or whatever it was that she was trying to get at with that boyfriend question. I don't read many fictional books, except stealing Kakashi's Icha Icha books at one point and being rather disgusted by his reading choice. I'm not a medic nin either, so all of her medical talk about anything other than common practice was beyond me as well. Eventually, I just shook my head at her and pretended to fall asleep against the tree I had been leaning on. She got the message and returned to her group with nothing new to share with them.

After she left, I felt somehow inadequate, as if I were missing so many things. I'm an advanced ninja, elite level, but her conversation made me feel like I was missing something, as if there were something more to life. Ro has been practically my whole world for my entire life, yet she was talking about hundreds of different people who have impacted hers. I sighed heavily and hid myself further into my travelling cloak. It's easier to ignore these thought than to face them head on, so I decided to force myself to get some sleep before we reached the chaos I was sure awaited us.


	3. Chapter 3

We reached Konoha after 3 days of travel, which I guess shouldn't have been surprising, but I had thought we were much further away to have deserved a full team escort.

The sight beyond the entrance gate took my breath away. I'd been to many villages, lived in some of them, but this one was to become my home. Permanently. It was beautiful. Some stout little buildings surrounded by long sprawling ones, an open-air market place with vendors shouting over the crowds of people bustling. Tall apartment buildings nestled on the outskirts of the center village and a cliff looked out over the entire village with the faces of five hokages carved into it.

"Oi, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted and waved.

"You can't leave yet, Naruto! We're going to report in to Tsunade-sama! Or have you forgotten how normal missions work?!" Sakura exclaimed in exasperation as Naruto attempted to leave for a man walking away from the academy building.

I clung close to Ro as Kakashi lead us through the village to the Hokage Tower right next to the cliff. Sakura and Naruto shouted greetings to people they saw along the way, many of whom had shouted greetings first. Sai nodded to far fewer people, but he was still acknowledged. All I could feel was stares at my cloak, my travelling companion, the handle of my katana strapped to my back. I wished I could fade away, this was far too many people for me to handle. I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder.

"These will be your new friends and family, Jaada," Ro rumbled, trying to be comforting in my ear. I held back a shudder.

"I don't know any of them. Why are there so many?" I murmured back to him. He chuckled and rubbed the shoulder her had a grip on.

"Only some of them are shinobi, many more are common civilians. You only need to worry about the shinobi. Kakashi doesn't associate with many, if I remember correctly." He assured me. I could only nod, at least that meant Kakashi wouldn't be dragging me around to show me off to the entire village. Not that I had really worried about that with his quiet personality, but it was still comforting to be told.

"This is the Hokage Tower," Kakashi interrupted my musings. "Lady Tsunade is our fifth hokage and you will be meeting with her often if you're to become a full Konoha jounin."

I nodded in response and followed him up the stairs. Ro stayed directly behind me while Kakashi's team followed in a cluster behind Ro.

"Come in!" barked an impatient voice on the other side of a huge set of doors. Kakashi lowered his fist and pushed the doors open.

"Ah," the woman leaned her abnormally large breasts over her desk, squinting her eyes at us. "So this is your daughter, brat."

"Hai, this is Jaada." He gestured for me to pull the hood of my travelling cloak off.

"Oi! Granny Tsunade! Why didn't you tell us that this was about Kaka-sensei's daughter?!" Naruto whined, pushing to be in front of her desk.

"Don't talk to Tsunade-sama like that!" Sakura also pushed to the front and punch Naruto on the head. Sai just continued smiling his awkward smile.

"Wouldn't have believed it myself if I didn't see that hair," Tsunade murmured curiously, coming around to the front of her desk and uncomfortably close to me to inspect my hair. I took a step backwards, set my jaw together hard enough to grind my teeth, and gave her a hard glare to tell her to back off. She just laughed at me and turned her attention to the blonde shinobi and the pink-haired kunoichi.

"You three kids are dismissed. I need to talk with the newcomers and Kakashi alone." Sakura nodded hurriedly and grabbed Naruto's arms to drag him off while Sai just bowed to the hokage and followed them out the door.

"They're just going to eavesdrop." Kakashi stated, pulling his orange book out of his pack. Tsunade glared at him, but then turned to Ro.

"It's good to see you again, Ro, but you sure have aged."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," Ro rumbled, bowing in respect to her. "Congratulations on your appointment as Hokage. I wouldn't be able to name a better one."

She frowned lightly at that, but otherwise nodded her head.

"Thank you. You understand that you return to us as a civilian?" She asked, her voice turning from playful to authoritative.

"Hai, I will find lodgings on the outskirts of town and plan to work as a farmer's assistant until I can earn enough to buy my own land." He replied, in as much of a businesslike tone.

"Very good. You're dismissed." She said shortly, flicking her wrist at him. He took a few steps backwards towards the door we entered. My jaw dropped a little.

"Just like that?" I asked, turning to him. "You're leaving now? How long before I see you again?"

He just smiled at me.

"I'll meet you and Kakashi for dinner, but yes, just like this. I'm off." He came towards me again and planted a kiss on the top of my head before this time he fully turned away as he left the room, shutting the door gently behind him.

I turned back to the room to find Tsunade watching me while Kakashi stowed his book away again.

"Alright, Jaada, I understand you will be moving in with your father and you will take your place training with his team. Since the team trains with Naruto's extensive methods and Yamato-taichou, you will fit in well enough and if I decide Sakura should stay at the hospital, you will take her place on missions. Kakashi will be responsible for you and your actions, I expect you to integrate yourself completely with the Konoha way of life and to accept the Will of Fire. Understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," I bowed to her. I had no idea what half the things she said meant, but I had to make a good first impression on her so I wouldn't look like an ignorant fool. I could research the Will of Fire and I was sure I'd meet this Yamato-taichou and see Naruto's extensive training methods soon enough for myself.

"Good." She returned to her desk. "Understood, brat?" She addressed Kakashi as an afterthought, looking at him over the top of the glasses she just put on. He gave her a two-fingered signal of agreement. "You're dismissed."

Kakashi placed his hand on the center of my back and swept me from the room without hesitation. As soon as we were out, I wanted to confront him about his complacent behavior and the way she kept calling him brat, but his orange porno was already out. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and adjusted my pace to keep up with him.

Now that my hood was down, I felt the stares of the villagers much more prominently on me. Kakashi's pace quickened to running over the rooftops and I was monumentally grateful not to have to think about those stares or what they meant or that I would have to face all of those people soon.

We reached his apartment building quickly. It was one of the tall buildings just outside the bustle of the inner village. Rather than entering through the front door, we stopped on the roof and scaled down the side of the building to one of the top floor windows. Kakashi rushed through some hand signals, dispelling his protection guards, and pulled the window open, gesturing for me to go through it first.

As I straightened up, my breath caught in my throat. The walls in front of me, to my sides, behind me, were all covered in half-filled or full built-in wooden bookshelves. There was a gorgeous wooden desk to my right that was covered with a thick tome and stacks of paperwork. To my left was a long overstuffed couch with an incredibly designed wooden coffee table placed just in front of it. An armchair sat nestled within the bookshelves behind me with a standing lamp somehow fitted next to it.

"Wow," I whispered, quite surprised this book room was so elaborate. Kakashi had never struck me as the stay at home and read hard literature type.

"Bathroom is straight ahead and the main room is just on the other side. I try to come in the main room after training and missions so that this one stays clean, but I saw Gai heading in that direction on the street corner, so we came in this way," Kakashi explained.

I could only nod as I considered my new surroundings. "Who's Gai?" I asked dazedly.

"My eternal rival," Kakashi responded sounding sarcastic. I turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "He's a very eccentric friend, but he's probably too much for you today. I avoid him as much as possible anyway," he added more sincerely, heading toward the main room as I followed him.

The main room was not nearly as notable as his book room. There was a just-big-enough bed tucked into the corner, a sink-stove kitchenette built into the front wall with maybe enough counter space for two cutting boards, a moveable island with some cabinets underneath, a fridge haphazardly in the kitchenette area, a low eating table in the somewhat center of the room, precisely 3 pictures sitting to the side of a large windowsill, and a second entrance to the large bathroom was mere feet away from the window. It was easy to see that this was his necessities room, set up completely for the convenience a ninja needs. The room we had entered was like a guilty pleasure room. I could see why he said the place was too small for the both of us though, I would most definitely be sleeping on the couch in the other room. I wasn't too sure how I felt about that, I was a bit claustrophobic on entering it, way too many things stuffed into such a small room.

Kakashi placed his traveling bag on the dresser at the foot of his bed and then removed his sandals to place them by the window. I did the same with mine.

"The closet is mostly empty. You can use it for your clothes, if you want." Kakashi said, motioning towards the door in the tiny hallway.

"Thanks," I responded, taking off my cloak. He was right, the closet was almost barren. A thick winter cloak hung to one side, an ANBU cloak next to it, and a spare jounin vest were the only things on the closet rod, while there were two extra pairs of sandals on the floor.

As I removed my traveling cloak and hung up my other clothes, I could hear him puttering around in the kitchen area, putting on a pot of water to boil, taking a couple mugs out of a cabinet. My stomach growled, after a few days on dry rations bars, I was excited to have a real dinner.

"I'm going to go out and get some decent food," Kakashi's head poked around the corner. "If you want to shower, there are clean towels in the cupboard in the bathroom. Otherwise, just don't…. make a mess."

"Fine," I said, scowling lightly at his insinuation that I was going to mess up his apartment like some toddler.

As soon as he left, I felt my whole stance relax. I hadn't even realized how tense I had gotten. I removed my katana and my weapons pouches, placing them next to the window, then I meandered back to the book room. The window was still open, letting a soft breeze run through the room. It made the whole place smell like paper, ink, and leaves. At least the smell was good, looking at the rest of the room just made me shiver with a desire to run. I'd expected everything to be barren or uptight or something, this room was different; it was very intense and personal. I rustled my way as quickly and quietly as possible to close the window before leaving the book room to take Kakashi up on his offer of a nice, cleansing shower.


	4. Chapter 4

"Kakashi-senpai!"

I jumped, turning away from the mirror, reaching for my katana when I heard the knocking, and then panicked when I realized it was out of my reach from the bathroom.

"Kakashi-senpai! Open up! I know you're in there!" The knocking escalated to pounding and I allowed the rational part of my mind to take over, telling myself to relax and just open the door. This person clearly knew Kakashi and was obviously pretty insistent. I kept a hand on my kunai, though, just in case.

I opened the door, the man on the other side froze, fist raised, mouth open ready to shout for Kakashi again. For a long moment we just stared at each other.

The first thing I noticed about him were his eyes. They were abnormally large, shaped like round almonds, and the deepest of brown in color. The rest of his facial features seemed to exist solely for the purpose of making those eyes more prominent. He was wearing a faceplate in place of the Konoha forehead protector and he had very short, thick dark brown hair. He was probably about the same height as Kakashi, but a wider stance and thicker muscle. He closed his mouth and blinked those big eyes at me.

"Hello?" he asked, his voice both deep and soft.

"Ah, hi," I said. "Kakashi went to the market to get food. He should be back soon."

The other man nodded, but didn't turn to leave. Instead we stood there and stared at each other some more.

"Oh," he muttered under his breath as if he'd just realized something. "I'm Yamato." He held out his hand in greeting. I grasped it and shook it formally.

"Jaada," I responded. After a brief internal debate, I added "Kakashi's daughter."

"I'd heard a rumor," he said, nodding slightly. "It's hard to keep secrets with Naruto around. The whole village will know by dinner time."

"Great," I mumbled.

"Well, ah, I'll just come ba—" He started as I remembered I was supposed to be getting to know my fellow villagers, adjusting to Konoha life and all.

"Would you like to come in?" I interrupted him, opening the door wider. He blinked those eyes again and stepped inside, removing his sandals.

"Thank you."

We stood awkwardly in the entrance as if waiting for some third party to start the conversation. I had never really interacted with anyone other than Kakashi or Ro and never had I even been alone with anyone other than those two. Kakashi was difficult to figure out, but somehow his silences were never incredibly awkward. As for Ro, I was alone with him most of my life, it was easy for me to understand how to interact with him. This person was entirely new to me. I didn't know what was appropriate to say or what to suggest we do in place of talking. He seemed to be expecting something of me, so what was I missing? Just as I was about to really start freaking myself out, he spoke.

"So, what do you think of Konoha?" He asked. My mind flew in several different directions. Was he just asking to make conversation? Was he evaluating me? Was he going to report it to the Hokage if I said anything negative? Was this conversation going on my record? Could he stop me from becoming a jounin?

"Ah, it's very, ah, beautiful here. I love all the trees." I said, sounding stupid to my own ears.

"Yes, the trees are my favorite part." He responded rather blandly, I could read no emotion in his eyes.

We moved out of the entry way to stand in the middle of the main room. I had to force myself to resist tapping my foot, this experience was making me incredibly uncomfortable and antsy.

"How was the journey?" He asked as the long, uncomfortable minutes added up.

"It was… Um, uneventful," I responded, still hesitating as to the intentions of his questions. He nodded and we avoided each other's gaze again.

"I can just come back later when Kakashi-senpai returns," he said, moving to put his sandals back on.

"No, wait," I started. If this was really some sort of evaluation, I was sure I was failing miserably. "It's just, well, overwhelming."

He stopped moving and turned back to me, eyebrows furrowed in question.

"Konoha," I clarified, referencing his first question. "It's overwhelming." His lips flicked upward in a small smile.

"Yeah," he responded gently, his voice taking on an almost chocolate-y tone. "I felt that way too."

My lips parted in surprise

"You are not a native Konoha ninja?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, I was a lab experiment, raised in ANBU. I didn't fully join Konoha society until, well, actually about 10 years ago," he paused scratching his head. "So, I guess somewhere around your age, probably a year or two younger." He shrugged, dropping his hand. Something in my memory clicked.

"You're Tenzo!" I exclaimed, Kakashi had told me about his ANBU partner who had been Orochimaru's lab experiment and that he had eventually been saved from Danzo's Root.

"Ah, yes," he blushed a little, his hand jumping to rub the back of his neck. "But, please, my name is Yamato now."

"Yeah, ok," I shrugged, ginning a little, happy that I was able to place this person, he was no longer a complete stranger to me.

"What's going on here?" came a slightly muffled voice from the doorway.

We both turned as Kakashi balanced one armload of groceries while he placed several bags from his other hand on his tiny kitchen island.

"What, are you buying for an army?" Yamato deadpanned. "I have never seen you with so much food, Senpai." He muttered, moving quickly to catch a bag that was balancing precariously on the edge of the island.

"I didn't realize you would be joining us, Tenzo," Kakashi responded, sounding slightly harassed rather than his usual bored tone.

"You must be Yamato-taichou," Ro ducked in through the still-open doorway and closed the door behind him.

"Hai," Yamato responded curtly, big eyes widening at the sight of Ro, face reddening as he realized that this was now really a family thing. "And, I will be leaving now. Kakashi-Senpai, please come visit me later so we can discuss training." He shot me a wave and was gone quicker than I would have thought possible.

"Why was he here?" Ro rounded on Kakashi as the man started putting away the mountain of groceries.

"To discuss training probably," Kakashi shrugged, responding haphazardly. Ro frowned and grabbed the carton of milk to pour a glass before putting it in the fridge.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, crossing my arms offended by the implication of Ro's tone of voice.

"Nothing is wrong with him," Kakashi sighed. "Ro doesn't want you alone with men. Especially not handsome ones like Tenzo," he added as a sarcastic afterthought.

"What?" I turned to Ro. "Why not?! And he's not _that_ handsome, just, well, insane eyes."

"Men will take advantage of you, Jaada," Ro squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. "You're an exceptional young woman."

"You're both men," I muttered.

"Yes, but we know how horrendous you can be," Kakashi countered lightly, without looking at me, instead pulling out utensils to start preparing our dinner. I rolled my eyes and huffed out a sigh.

"I can take care of myself."

"We know that, kiddo… we just…" Ro grasped for words as I stared him down, daring him to explain how, at a jounin level, I was incapable of defending myself from sexual advances.

"We can't have you killing the entire male population of the village you will now claim to protect. You need more dignity than that," Kakashi deadpanned while he cut vegetables with nonchalance.

"Hey," I growled, not bothering to hide that I was offended by that. "I have dignity."

"Hmm," he hummed through his nose, still not removing his focus from the vegetables.

"Don't start a fight, now," Ro grumbled. "But, in all honesty, Jaada, please be careful, you cannot just run away from things that may happen here."

He sent a questioning look my way until I relaxed my stance and nodded. He was right, I couldn't just pack up and leave this village the way I had been able to do every other time in my life. I still wasn't sure exactly what that meant or how I was going to handle it, but it was a thought that really needed to be prevalent in my decision making.

"Do you need any help with dinner?" Ro turned toward Kakashi, with a more forgiving tone.

"Thank you, no, I'm just going to make a stir fry, it shouldn't take too long." Kakashi responded as he turned the stovetop on and filled a pan with oils and spices.

The rest of dinner-making went uneventfully and we sat down at the small table to nice, civilized conversation. It was mostly about my training and the training that Kakashi used with his unique team. We also discussed how Ro's role in my life was going to be significantly diminished, though I could still visit him on the outskirts of the village, I needed to make my primary goal becoming a part of the shinobi life. Namely, that meant spending much of my time with Kakashi's team and their friends.

And, just to be clear, I've never seen Kakashi's face either. He uses genjutsu to eat so that it looks like he's still wearing his mask even though he's really not. He doesn't like using his chakra for such a frivolous reason, which is why he still eats scarily fast. The man had finished his portion of the food before Ro or I had even pulled apart our chopsticks. It was actually one or the few reasons I was starting to get a tiny bit excited about living with him; I really wanted a chance to see the face underneath. How much did it look like mine? Was he more scarred than he was letting on? Was he really disfigured?

"Jaada?" Ro's voice pulled me out of my wandering mind.

"Yeah?"

"I'm leaving now, we'll get together later in the week and you can let me know how training is going."

"Sure," I said, smiling. He pulled me into a large bear hug.

"Don't kill each other," he warned equally to me and Kakashi. "I swear, it's like babysitting with the two of you," he added under his breath.

I laughed and watched him leave, waiting until he had rounded the corner before closing the door. After I did so, I turned around to see Kakashi changing the sheets on his bed.

"You can sleep in here, I usually fall asleep in the other room anyway. You didn't seem too fond of my book room either."

"Ah, sure. Thanks, Dad."


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up far too early for training the next morning. I kept tying my hair up and letting it down, tying it up and letting it down, tying it up and letting it down. I didn't bother going into the book room to find Kakashi, I was sure he had probably woken up the minute I'd stood from the bed, if not sooner. I probably should have checked to see that he was there though. The sun had come up high in the sky and I'd munched down a couple pieces of bread with butter nervously before the window next to the bed was wrenched open. From the outside. And Kakashi came in. Drenched with morning dew.

"Ready to go?" He asked, straightening up his stance and checking to make sure his porn was in his pouch.

"Yeah," I replied, securing my katana to my back and briefly debating putting my travelling cloak on in order to repel the looks I was sure I was going to get. "When did you leave?"

"We're late. Best get a move on."

I didn't bother to respond, just rolled my eyes and followed him back out the window.

We raced over the rooftops of the village, much like we had done the afternoon before, until we got to a small clearing in among the trees.

"This is Training Ground 13, where my team spends most of our time," Kakashi said as he motioned for me to follow him to the cluster of teens I'd met the day before.

"Kaka-sensei! Why do you always have to be so late!?" Naruto whined as soon as we got within sight distance of them. "We've been ready for an hour!"

"Maa, I got lost on—"

"THE ROAD OF LIFE, WE KNOW!" Sakura and Naruto both cut him off, frustrated in their own ways. Naruto looked antsy and Sakura was grinding her fists together.

"Ah, good of you to join us, Kakashi-senpai! Good morning, Jaada," Yamato snuck up behind us and nodded in good-natured greeting, acting completely oblivious to the anger of the blonde and the pink haired kunoichi. Sai had said nothing throughout our arrival and was only now picking up a drawing book and ink pens that he had apparently been working with to come over to join the rest of the team.

"So, training," Kakashi began, clapping his hands together, acting as if our late entrance had never happened. Sakura and Naruto immediately shut up and paid attention to him, also acting as if they hadn't just been yelling at him for unprofessionalism. Weird. "Pakkun is hiding within the training grounds. The first person to find him gets a special set of objectives. The second person needs to find Shiba and he will give you the next set of objectives. The third person finds Urushi. And the fourth person finds Bull. No exclaiming when you find your objectives, just go about your business to complete them by noon."

"So, we have no idea which one of your summons we're actually looking for?" Sakura sighed.

"Well, first you are all looking for Pakkun," he responded fairly. "But, you'll have to figure out when he's been found and replaced with another. And, if you do find one of the others, they won't be able to give you their objectives until the hound before him has been found."

Naruto had a blank look on his face, Sai had tilted his head very slightly to the side as though he was also trying to figure out what exactly the directions were. I just grumbled a bit, I didn't want to chase down Kakashi's dogs, he made things so complicated sometimes, why didn't we just spar? I had no idea how my teammates fought, it would be much more beneficial to the whole team if I knew more about them. Sakura sighed impatiently and folded her arms across her chest.

I glanced over to the trees where Yamato was leaning, he had a slightly amused expression on his face and seemed to be shaking his head lightly in exasperation. He looked like he thought our instructions were far too complicated as well. He noticed me watching him and adjusted his expression to a friendly smile. I shifted slightly and turned my attention back to Kakashi.

"Begin," he said, with a bored look on his face.

Sakura, Naruto, and Sai bounded into the trees. I only jumped out of the clearing then I bit my thumb and made my hand signals to summon Tekki. Tekki is big, black, shaggy, and has the most impressive nose on him.

"What's up, boss?" He growled at me with his deep, rough dog voice.

"Find Pakkun," I responded. He tilted his head in question.

"Why?"

"Some stupid training for Kakashi."

"Huh," Tekki grunted. He put his nose to the ground, sniffed once, moved his head to the air, and sniffed again. "40 meters to you right, 20 meters straight ahead from there."

"Thanks," I ruffled his hair and scratched his favorite place behind his ears. "Big dinner for you and Auri soon, I promise."

"Thanks, boss. Good luck with Kakashi." His tail thumped and then he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Pakkun was exactly where Tekki said he was. Hidden from sight, of course, but I could smell him.

"Hey Pakkun, give me the objectives," I said, already bored with this silly training.

"Hey pup," he greeted gruffly. "Didn't realize you were part of this. Makes sense though, Kakashi usually only needs three of us for training."

"Well, this training is below me anyway." I sighed. "It took me all of three minutes to find you."

"The other brats aren't even close," he replied, sitting close to me so I could pat him. "Well, Sai is. He just found Shiba."

I rolled my eyes.

"Kakashi just doesn't know what to do with you yet, pup," Pakkun muttered. "Give him some time." I nodded slowly and continued scratching the scruff of Pakkun's neck.

"Oh, so what are my objectives?" I asked, remembering this was only the beginning of the training. Pakkun snorted.

"He figured you'd be the first to find me. You're supposed to observe your new teammates skills without letting them realize you're doing nothing."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Those were my initial thoughts for a first day of training, observe and assess. Looks like I would be doing just that now. Plus, I got to talk with Tekki and Pakkun, who were both friendly, familiar faces. The way we'd begun the day's training also didn't draw attention to the fact that I was new or should be treated differently. Maybe Kakashi did know what he was doing after all.

I ended up deciding on settling in a tree to observe my teammates' fighting styles. It also happened to be the tree Yamato was casually leaning against. It was the best vantage point in the training grounds though, so I held my ground.

I learned a lot during the first hour. Naruto had incredible stamina and chakra reserves. He relied heavily on the use of shadow clones, but that wasn't a disadvantage in his case. He fought instinctively, without forethought, but his strength made it acceptable. Sakura was incredibly strong, she could pinpoint attacks perfectly and was also good at weighing her options to act in the smartest way possible. Sai was able to fight using beasts that he drew. He could draw anything and bring it to life with a jutsu, which allowed him to be an incredibly versatile shinobi. He could as easily go into battle as he could observe one silently without ever being noticed. Overall, I was impressed, despite their incompetence in finding Kakashi's ninken.

Once I'd figured out the basics though, I started to get bored. They were training, so they were using the same methods to seek each other out and it wasn't pushing them to their maximum extremes. I let my fingers start drumming out a rhythm on the tree trunk, there was still at least 2 hours until noon, when I assumed Kakashi would call a break.

"Want to spar?" Yamato's voice lingered right behind my shoulder. I couldn't stop a squeak of surprise as I turned to see no one there. Huh? I glanced down, he was still leaning against the tree, but now he was snickering.

"How did you do that?" I asked, jumping down from my perch to land beside him.

"My specialty is mokuton. I speak to the trees," his face turned playfully serious. I let myself grin at him.

"I'd love to spar."

"I figured, you seemed to be getting restless up there."

"Weapons?" I asked. When I spar with Kakashi or Ro, we decide whether we fight mainly chakra, mainly physical weapons, or all out. Yamato considered my question for a moment, then eyed the katana on my back.

"It's been a while since I've had a good sword practice."

I answered with an even wider grin.

"Katanas then?"

He smiled warmly at me.

"Give me five minutes." He disappeared.

True to his word, less than five minutes later, he reappeared with his own katana strapped securely onto his back.

He led me out into the clearing and took his stance, feet slightly apart and hands by his side but carefully at the ready.

"Ready?" He asked as I settled in, mirroring his stance across from him. I nodded eagerly, it'd be nice to have a new opponent, especially if he was going to be hard to beat. Based on the confidence in his stance and the flawless condition of his katana, I could tell this was going to be a good challenge.

"Start!"

Both our hands flew to the weapons on our backs and we clashed directly in the center of the clearing, swords clanging crisply together. I immediately took the offensive, my feet pointed forward, my every move forcing him to react on defense, not allowing a counterattack to be made against me. I cornered him at the edge of our grounds before he came out of his protective stance and was soon nailing me with hit after hit. His technique was as good as mine, his footwork even better, much more heavily practiced. If I was even slightly worse than I was, I would have been tripping over my feet as I attempted to counter his attacks. Our swords kept meeting deftly, strongly, with that beautiful sound of metal scraping metal, powered only by human force.

We would keep cornering each other on the edges of our clearing, then stealing the advantage from the other one. I could tell he enjoyed his katana almost as much as I loved mine. His abnormal eyes were bright with enthusiasm and he seemed to be more laughing than panting. It made the experience much more fun for me, I found myself laughing along with him as we switched our positions yet again. I found an energetic smile had taken up residence on my face as our parried attacks slowed and we simply seized each other up, walking careful circles as we tried to determine a move that might break our opponent.

"Yamato-taichou!" The shout echoed over the training grounds and both of us froze. Within seconds, the katana was replaced on Yamato's back and he was flying through hand seals. He smacked his hands into the ground and five wooden dragons soared to where Naruto, or a Naruto clone, was being quickly overcome by a foggy red mist. The wooden dragons attacked the mist and clamped it into the ground, the Naruto clone disappeared with a poof, Kakashi appeared from his hiding place in the trees, and Yamato relaxed again, sitting back on his heels.

Damn, that was impressive. His whole demeanor had changed from a more or less playful swordfight to restraining what I assumed must have been the Kyuubi chakra, not a laughing matter at all. And that was some pretty intense chakra mojo to have pulled out so quickly as well.

"Everyone into the clearing." Kakashi ordered. I straightened from my fighting stance and replaced my katana on my back as Naruto, Sakura, and Sai appeared from their places in the trees.

"What happened?" He demanded shortly at Naruto. "Today was a break from your special training. We shouldn't have had any incidents."

Naruto ducked his head in shame.

"I thought having a few clones to keep practicing would be a good idea," he mumbled. "I have to learn my new jutsu. I have to!" He lifted his head, pounding one hand into his other fist as he shouted the last part.

Kakashi clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"Today was supposed to be recovery again Naruto, you expended enough chakra practicing while on our mission. Tomorrow we are going to start your intensive training again. This was as much for your recovery as Yamato's." Kakashi didn't raise his voice at all and this seemed to have the intended effect on Naruto.

"Hai, Kaka-sensei," he responded sincerely enough. Kakashi's eye curved upward in a smile.

"Maa, I was going to stop you all soon anyway. It's lunch time!"

We all looked up as a new shinobi came into our circle. He had very dark brown hair pulled up into a ponytail, deeply tanned skin, and a scar running right over his nose. He smiled warmly at us and held up a bag filled with bento boxes.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted, his enthusiasm regained. He ran to embrace the man who was now blushing slightly.

Sakura grinned happily at the man as well. "What are you doing here, Iruka-sensei?"

"Well, ah," he rubbed the scar on his nose as he set his bag down on the ground. "The academy is closed on weekends and Tsunade-sama banned me from the missions office for a while. So, I had some free time." He bent to rummage through the bag, handing a bento box to Naruto first, as the kid couldn't leave him alone.

"Banned you from the missions office?" Yamato chuckled.

"Heh, yeah," he scratched at the back of his head, blush returning again. "She has a bet with a couple academy teachers and missions office staff that I can't work less than 60 hours a week for a month."

"Ah," Yamato nodded sagely while Sakura giggled amusedly as Iruka handed her one of the bento boxes. "That makes sense."

This man as obviously familiar with the whole team. Even Sai, who still seemed oddly separated from the group, was welcomed warmly onto the ground with a bento box of his own, thanking the man happily and digging into his food with gusto. Iruka handed Kakashi and Yamato each their own bento box before leaning down to the bag once more with two last boxes. As everyone began to eat, Iruka came close to me.

"Kakashi told me you like spicy foods, so I sautéed some habanero and siracha sauce into yours," he handed one of the two boxes in his hands to me. I couldn't help but gape at him as I accepted it.

"Thank you," I murmured.

"Please, call me Iruka," he continued, still smiling. I nodded mutely before realizing I should accept his hand of friendship.

"Jaada," I responded. Without knowing what to say next, I opened the box and pulled apart my chopsticks. The spicy aroma was like heaven to my senses, I could feel my mouth already starting to water. There was sticky rice, habanero peppers, fish, lemon, sweet peppers, bok choi, and other veggies tumbled together in beautiful, delicious harmony.

"This is amazing," I said, after swallowing my first mouthful.

"I'm glad you enjoy it," he responded happily, before turning to where Naruto was trying to reclaim his attention. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Jaada, I'm sure we'll see each other around."

With that soft response, he left me respectfully to my food. I was kind of amazed that Kakashi had remembered how much I enjoy spicy foods. Then I realized that Kakashi had to tell this man that I liked spicy foods. Which meant they had a conversation about me. And he wasn't forced to do it because I had been standing right in front of them. Kakashi's team was had been in the dark. Not even Yamato, Kakashi's most trusted partner, had known about me before Naruto announced it. My mouth dropped as it hit me.

"They're –" a branch slapped over my mouth. That didn't make any sense. I wasn't even near a tree. I sent a glare toward Yamato. He caught my expression and moved close enough to me that we could whisper without the others hearing.

"What was that look for?" He asked, pretending to be ignorant. I spit a twig out of my mouth. He shrugged. "Don't make accusations aloud."

"I didn't accuse anything!"

"You were about to."

"So?"

"The other three don't know. Actually, no one else in the village would even suspect. Gai is the only other one who knows."

"So, I'm right, then?"

"About what exactly?" He played dumb again. I bit back a growl of frustration.

"About Kakashi and Iruka, Tenzo," I grumbled darkly at him.

"Don't call me that!" He hissed.

We glowered at each other for a minute before resuming eating as Sai cast a curious look in our direction.

"They've been together almost three years," he murmured, softly as possible, gaze fixed on his food.

"That explains a lot," I replied, equally as quiet, keeping my eyes directed on my rice. So, that was a new revelation about my father. He was gay. Gay for a younger academy sensei. Sure, Iruka seemed nice, but I'd just never thought about gay ninja before. They couldn't pass on their amazing genius genetics. If their loved one died, they wouldn't be able to raise a small piece of them to keep them in their hearts. It must be much lonelier. And it must be hard to keep hidden.

Yamato's arm bumped mine, rousing me from my thoughts. I looked up at him, he sent me a questioning glance.

"You'll tell me everything later?" I asked.

He frowned, there seemed to be an internal debate going on in his head. Then, he shook his head.

"Kakashi-senpai should be the one to tell you. He'll do it eventually," Yamato considered this statement for a moment, then sighed. "Hopefully."

I wrinkled my nose, a little upset that he wouldn't tell me anything, but at the same time, it was nice to know that he didn't seem the type to indulge in gossip. I knew, first-hand, how harmful gossip could be. I was a little proud that Yamato seemed to be a good person to be becoming my first friend. We were already treating each other with familiarity, it was nice. I decided to trust him, at least on the issue of Kakashi and Iruka. I would reserve my judgment after I'd really gotten to know what their relationship was.


	6. Chapter 6

We finished our meals contentedly, Iruka packed up the clean bento boxes, and cheerfully wished us luck with the rest of our training before he left. Yamato leaned in to Kakashi to whisper something in his ear while Sakura stretched, Naruto yelled after Iruka, and Sai read a book that he'd pulled out of nowhere. I just tried to wait as patiently as I could for Yamato and Kakashi to finish their private conversation.

"So! Training," Yamato shouted suddenly, startling us out of our reveries. "Sakura, Tsunade-sama wants you back at the hospital for the afternoon."

"Hai!" She replied, grinning happily.

"Sai, you're free to spend the afternoon in the library as you requested."

"Hai, Yamato-taicho," he responded fairly, smiling but not as excited as Sakura appeared to be.

"And Naruto," Yamato finally addressed the blond who was beginning to look incredibly impatient. "Make some clones and return to cutting the waterfall."

"Alright!" He jumped, punching the air with his fist. Both Yamato and Kakashi looked exasperated about his enthusiasm. I could understand it too, I was beginning to tire just watching him.

"Jaada," Yamato turned to me. "You may watch Naruto's training, join Sai at the library, or learn from Sakura at the hospital."

I felt my body deflate. I didn't even get my own option, I had to latch on to one of the others. Disappointing. Well, watching someone else train was never fun if I couldn't join in and the library sounded equally dull.

"I guess I'll go to the hospital, then," I sighed, unable to keep the dissatisfaction from my voice.

"I'd love to teach you some of what I know," Sakura offered, smiling sweetly.

"Sure, thanks," I tried a smile back. Apparently it wasn't convincing enough as Kakashi appeared by my elbow.

"You need to get to know the village, Jaada," he hissed in my ear. "More in depth training will come later." His voice softened as he felt the tension rise in my body.

"Fine," I hissed back at him. "You owe me a good fight tonight." I walked away from him to join Sakura.

"I'm sorry you don't really want to come to the hospital," she offered quietly as we walked. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's not your fault," I said.

"I know, but I still feel badly that you're not happy about it."

"Oh," that puzzled me. Why should she be sorry for something she had no control over? Well, that was the case anyway, so I shouldn't take out my frustration on her. "Ah, so, do you spend a lot of time at the hospital?"

"Yeah, Tsunade-sama is my master, she is teaching me everything she knows. It's been really incredible. I love doing medical work," Sakura offered, forcing some brightness into her features.

"That's exciting," I responded, racking my brain to think of other things to talk about to make our journey a little less awkward. "You're incredibly strong as well, that I noticed."

"Thank you! Tsunade-sama taught me those techniques as well. I noticed you were giving Yamato-taicho a run for his money with the sword fighting," She winked at me.

"Ah, thanks," I said, not quite sure what the winking meant. "He was a good competitor, I would love to fight with him again."

"He doesn't do much training with us. Usually he's under too much stress keeping the kyuubi chakra at bay."

"Is he the only one who can do that?"

"Yeah, only the mokuton or the sharingan can control it. Since Kakashi only has one sharingan and it exhausts his chakra so quickly, it makes more sense to keep it under Yamato-taicho's mokuton control."

I nodded in understanding; that made sense.

"Well, here we are!" Sakura chirped as we stopped in front of a large building near the center of the village.

As we entered, there were people running in every direction.

"It can be a bit chaotic," Sakura said, apologetically. She waved for me to follow her as she started down a hallway. I kept close to her side, not quite ready to try to take on the whole building at once.

"Here," she handed me a stack of white medic-nurse clothes as we got into a back room filled with lockers. "You can leave your weapons in my locker, you'll be a lot more comfortable without them on."

I hesitated at that. I hate leaving my weapons anywhere, but glancing at the clothes again, I realized she was right. My katana, especially, was not going to work under them.

We changed our clothes quietly as bustles of other medics came in and out of the room, changing clothes to either leave or begin working. Most of them greeted Sakura enthusiastically, and she tried to introduce me to the ones who weren't in a hurry. I didn't catch many of the names, but I did appreciate her effort. My mind was in overdrive, I had never been with this many people, in such crowded quarters. I made up my mind to change as quickly as possible and then wait for Sakura outside the room.

She caught up with me a couple minutes later, tying her hair back into a short pink ponytail.

"It can be a bit rough in there," she offered as apology, giving me a half smile. "Now we check in with the head medic to see which patients need to be checked on and which surgeries will need assistance."

I nodded and once again hung close to her side as she led me through dizzying hallways. Eventually we came to a small office in what must be the center of the hospital. She knocked on the door.

"Come in!" The voice on the other side shouted. Sakura pushed the door open and beckoned me lightly to come in with her.

"Ah, Sakura-chan!" The woman behind the desk greeted, she had short, dark hair and big dark eyes that stood out against pale skin. There was an odd pink pig with a pearl necklace sitting by her side. As I entered the room to stand beside Sakura, her mouth gaped open, her hands freezing on the paperwork she was shuffling.

"Shizune-san! I didn't realize you would be head medic today!" Sakura greeted the woman happily and then gestured to me. "This is Hatake Jaada and she'll be assisting me today."

"Wow, you look like Hatake-san," the woman called Shizune breathed, blinking her wide eyes almost frantically. Then she seemed to shake herself. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Jaada-chan."

She extended her hand across the table. I moved forward to take it.

"You as well, Shizune-san," I responded, trying to shake her hand tightly but not too forcefully or too floppily or for too short a time or too long a time. I was saved from that when she pulled her hand back after a couple short pumps.

"Excellent," she sighed and handed over a clipboard. "Sakura, we have the three patients in ICU to check on, a chakra exhaustion case in Room 312 for testing to be sent home, and two surgeries that Ino needs a partner for on the first floor starting in an hour."

"We'll get right on it," Sakura replied, hastily taking the clipboard and beginning to skim through notes.

Shizune turned back to her desk of paperwork, which Sakura and I took as our dismissal from the office.

"ICU means intensive care. Two of them are currently in induced comas to heal some extensive injuries while the third one hasn't yet woken up since returning from a mission yesterday." Sakura explained as we walked. She handed the clipboard to me as soon as she finished skimming through it. "You can read through their charts if you want, but be careful not to lose me. We're on a time limit here. Ino needs us back on the first floor in an hour."

"Hai," I responded hastily as though responding to an order. I felt out Sakura's chakra presence beside me, then was very careful to keep it in the forefront of my mind as I looked down at the clipboard.

There were many notes scribbled in the margins, tables and charts covered every page. There were no checkboxes, each box was filled with numbers and often illegible other scribbles. I stared at the sheets for maybe 2 minutes before giving up and deciding to just follow Sakura, which was already proving to be a difficult task.

I began jogging to keep pace with her as we reached what must be the ICU. She pushed open one of the doors and lifted the clipboard hanging off the foot of the bed. She consulted it briefly, watched the machines beeping, observed the fluid bag IV's, and then turned to me.

"I'm basically just checking to make sure his heart rate and blood pressure are normal, he's getting the correct amount of nutrition and hydration from the bags, and now I'm just going to observe how his organs are healing," she explained quickly to me. She turned back to the unconscious man on the bed and held her hands, glowing with green chakra, over his chest and down to his midsection.

When she finished a couple minutes later, she nodded to herself, and added a few notes to the clipboard on his bed as well as the one I had been holding.

"Oh," she stopped before leaving the room and turned to me. "Do you have any questions?"

"I'm all set for now," I said, shaking my head. "Just learning by observation."

"Please ask me anything when you want to."

"Will do, thanks." I responded quickly. Though her offer seemed sincere, I could tell she really wanted to move through these comatose patients as quickly as possible. I wasn't about to stop her and risk making her angry or rush further. Shut up, watch, learn later. That was my motto.

By the time we finished checking over the third comatose patient, I had pretty much decided that, given the option again, I would choose differently. With Naruto's training, I could probably just start doing my own exercises. And libraries could be useful, do all that learning later stuff I mentioned earlier. Well, at least a surgery would be interesting, I thought, as we nearly broke into a run to get to the first floor.

I was amazed at how quickly that hour went by, even though it felt like it had been mere minutes since we got to the hospital.

"This is the surgeons' prep room," Sakura explained, pushing open double doors to a large sink basin with a new selection of masks, hair nets, and aprons. "Wash your hands thoroughly with this antiseptic, then put on a mask, hair net, and gloves. You can stand anywhere you want to observe, just try to stay at least 8 feet away from the table to reduce the risk of infecting the patient or getting in the way in case of emergency."

"Hai, Sakura-chan, thank you," I responded quickly and got to work on scrubbing my hands.

"Saku- um. Hello?" A girl probably about Sakura's age with insanely long platinum blond hair came through the doors of the prep room. She stared openly at me as I pulled on a pair of gloves.

"Ino, this is Jaada, who is assisting me this afternoon. Jaada-chan, this is Ino. She's a chuunin in our year and will be leading the surgery today."

"Nice to meet you, Ino-chan," I smiled at her, trying to ignore the blatant confusion in her expression. I didn't extend my newly gloved hands to shake hers, which seemed to be the correct move as she slowly turned to wash her own hands at the sink. She glanced at Sakura with a questioning look while Sakura shook her head minutely back at Ino. They were definitely having a conversation about me that they were determined to keep me out of. Well, at least I knew that meant they had to be very good friends.

Whatever Sakura's glance answered for Ino apparently did the trick as Ino gave me a bright smile.

"Welcome to the team, Jaada-chan, we're glad to have you," Ino chirped before setting her attention back to the preparation. The two of them talked about the surgery in terms I didn't understand as they got ready, then the three of us, as well as a couple other medics who had come in to the prep room, all pushed through another set of doors with our elbows to get into the actual operating room.

Both of the surgeries ended up being successful and I got to see how well Ino and Sakura were able to work as a medical team. They were really pretty inspiring. By the end of it all, though, my feet and back were aching. I could only imagine how all of these medics did this all day, every day. I would rather be running, using my muscles, than remaining stationary for as long as they do. It takes a certain kind of strength to be a medic ninja, and although I now have newfound respect for them, I am glad my father and Ro never set me up for this shinobi way of life. I don't think I would be able to manage it.

After handing in our clipboard back to Shizune and changing from the medic nin clothes back to everyday battle wear, Sakura and I finally left the hospital. The sun must have set a couple hours previously, as the last few rays of light were slowly descending into the sky. Ino had the overnight shift at the hospital, so she had bid us goodbye after completing the surgeries.

"So, what did you think?" Sakura asked me, her authoritarian demeanor fading as we let the hospital doors close behind us.

"Well, I'm impressed, but it's all just quite a lot to take in," I responded carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings that I really didn't want to train under her.

"Hai," she responded, still friendly but I could tell she understood I probably wouldn't be assisting her again for a while. "It is pretty overwhelming. But, you get used to it with time and experience."

We walked a little ways more together in a comfortable silence.

"We enjoyed having you though," Sakura turned slightly to smile at me. "You're welcome back any time you'd like."

"Thanks," I responded, letting myself smile as warmly as I could in return.

"On a different note, Ino and I would like to invite you out to our next girl's night. We like to get together with the other kunoichi we graduated with. It gives us all a chance to relax and catch up on the gossip."

"Ah, thanks," my smile faltered a little. "How many of you are there?"

"Not too many," she chuckled a little. "Ino and I are the medics, Hinata is in the very beginning stages of her medical training, but mostly she is still learning her family's unique fighting style. Tenten is very adept with weapons, especially time-space jutsu that keep very large amounts of weapons contained within small scrolls. Occasionally, Temari from Suna will join us, she fights with her large wind-chakra fan and is very intelligent. And, uh, I think that's it!"

I kept count of the number of people she mentioned, 4 or sometimes 5, I could handle that. I assumed they would be doing most of the talking amongst themselves anyway, after introductions, I could just melt into the background. It would be good socializing though, to get myself integrated into the village life. It did make me quite nervous that they were all girls though, I didn't spend much time with girls. Most of the ones I've had experience with are very petty. Sakura and Ino were definitely competent from what I'd seen so far though, so I decided that my joining them could do no harm.

"I would be grateful if I could join you all sometime," I said finally.

"Great! I'll let you know the next time we plan a get together."

We continued again in silence, with this one there seemed to be even less tension in the air as the bustle of the village around us soon made us lose any chance of talking. Obviously the darkness of the hour had no real effect on the ninja of the village, so I assumed that must be why there were still so many people about. I let the whole experience wash over me until I felt a familiar chakra tingle over my senses.

"Kakashi is here somewhere," I said, turning to Sakura. She snorted lightly.

"They're probably feeding Naruto some ramen before making him go home to sleep."

"Oh, that happens a lot?"

"Yeah, Ichiraku is a great ramen stand," she pointed ahead at a small food stand where a tall man with short brown hair was just leaving. "See? There's Yamato-taicho!"

She waved eagerly at him, he lifted a single hand tiredly in response. We hastened our pace to catch up with him.

"Hey, Sakura, Jaada," he greeted quietly, nodding to us as we approached. "How was the hospital?"

"It was great! Two successful surgeries and no new immediate cases!" Sakura exclaimed. "How was Naruto's training?"

He sighed, stretching slightly as he readjusted his stance, a weary stiffness seemed to have taken him over since we'd left him several hours earlier.

"As well as can be expected for someone as exhausted as him," Yamato responded finally. "Kakashi-senpai just took him home and will probably put him to sleep with the sharingan."

"He left you with the bill again, didn't he?" Sakura teased playfully.

Yamato shrugged, blushing lightly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Maa, he'll pay me back someday."

Sakura giggled and then glanced behind her as someone called her name.

"That's my cue to go. Thanks again for your company, Jaada-chan. See you both tomorrow!" She turned and ran from us as we both said our good-byes to her as well. I turned to Yamato.

"Well, I feel like she just turned babysitting duty over to you."

"Hmm," he responded, glancing up at the sky. "Do you know where you are in the village?"

I looked around, up at the tall buildings a little ways ahead. The one right in front of us could be Kakashi's. But, then again, so could the one further to our right or our left, or directly behind us. I cursed at myself mentally, but shrugged complacently toward Yamato.

"If I was up on the rooftops, I could get back."

"Mmhmm, but what if you are out walking with friends? Wouldn't you want to know your way home?"

"I could walk them all home and then jump up to the rooftops," I countered. He cocked his head to the side to look at me fully, one eyebrow raised as his eyes exuding a pleasant, light, teasing warmth.

"Well," he sighed wearily. "I suppose I could walk you from here."

I fluttered my eyelashes overdramatically at him. "You're _too_ kind."

He laughed and I felt my face ease into a more natural expression than I'd had all day.

"Come on, this way," he beckoned for me to join him in turning down another crowded street to our left.

"Why does Naruto focus so hard on this unique training?" I asked as we walked away from the loudness of the village night-life.

"He's convinced himself that he needs to be stronger than Sasuke. You know about Sasuke, right?" Yamato asked, turning his head to me in question.

"He left the village a little over three years ago and now trains with Orochimaru?"

"Mm."

"So, how is that related to Naruto's training?"

"Well," Yamato scratched the back of his head and looked up towards the sky. "Naruto thinks the only one who can bring Sasuke back to the village is himself, but Sasuke won't come unless he's defeated."

"Naruto trains so that he can kill Sasuke? I thought he was an important bond or something?" I frowned, still not exactly understanding all of this.

"He is, they are very important friends to each other, but it's more complicated than that."

I resisted the urge to question him again, already feeling like I was pestering him with a subject he didn't seem to comfortable talking about. I glanced over in his direction; his lips were pressed together in a thin line, his brow furrowed in thought. I looked back to the road, watching where we were going and we remained like that for several minutes.

"Maybe think about it this way," Yamato broke the silence easily. "If your guardian, Ro, were suddenly to abandon you and the village in order to seek revenge on the person who killed his wife and unborn child, what would you want to do about it?"

"Ro wouldn't do that," I disagreed quickly.

"But what if he did?"

"He wouldn't," I said, still wondering at what Yamato was trying to get at.

"Yes, but what if he did?" He pressed on with greater emphasis.

I opened my mouth to deny it again, but all that came out was a whisp of air when I realized what he was getting at. Just like I have complete faith in Ro, Naruto must have had complete faith in his growing relationship with Sasuke. _If_ Ro were to do something like Sasuke had done, of course I would go to any extreme possible to show him he was wrong, to try to get him to realize the importance of his relationship with me, to let him understand how much he has made me the person I am today.

"Oh," I murmured softly.

"It's not exactly the same, but you understand his reasoning a little more now, maybe?" Yamato asked.

"Yeah, I can't even imagine that kind of pain. To have someone so important to you turn on your ideals so completely," I responded, shuddering.

"Mmhmm, it's heartbreaking," Yamato mumbled quietly. "So, Kakashi-senpai and I do what we can to help him," his voice turned more cheerful.

"I would like to help too," I said.

"Which would probably be for you to become a jounin and join us on missions, so hurry up and get assimilated to our culture," he teased me playfully. "Anyway, here we are. Kakashi-senpai seems to be back already. I'll let you go here."

"Mm, thank you for walking me. I know my surroundings much better now," I responded just as sincerely as he was behaving.

"See you soon," he responded, chuckling lightly as he turned, presumably to head back to his own apartment.

I watched his retreating back for a moment before looking back towards the building of my doom. Well, really, just some awkward small talk, a silent dinner, and then probably spend the rest of my night cleaning my weapons while we ignored each other. Well, at least I wouldn't be standing through more surgeries.

With that happy thought, I gathered chakra into my feet and hands, quickly scaling the building up to Kakashi's window.


End file.
